Apple to Introduce 64-Bit Revolution with New PowerMac G5

In August, Apple launches the world's fastest personal computer with the Power Mac G5, featuring the first 64-bit desktop processor and the industry's initial 1 GHz front-side bus. Powered by the revolutionary PowerPC G5 processor designed by IBM and Apple, the Power Mac G5 is the first personal computer to utilize 64-bit processing technology for unprecedented memory expansion (up to 8GB) and advanced 64-bit computation, while running existing 32-bit applications natively.

"The 64-bit revolution has begun and the personal computer will never be the same again," proclaims Steve Jobs, Apple's ceo. "The new Power Mac G5 [exceeds the] fastest Pentium 4 and dual Xeon-based systems in industry-standard benchmarks and real-world professional applications."

Delivering the industry's highest system bandwidth, the Power Mac G5 line offers dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, each with an independent 1 GHz front-side bus, for an impressive 16 GBps of bandwidth. The line also features the industry's highest bandwidth memory (400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM with throughput up to 6.4 GBps); the industry's fastest PCI interface available on a desktop (133 MHz PCI-X); and cutting-edge AGP 8X Pro graphics capabilities, all within a new professional aluminum enclosure featuring innovative computer-controlled cooling for quiet operation.

The PowerPC G5 processor is a result of the strategic relationship between Apple and IBM. At frequencies up to 2 GHz, the PowerPC G5 introduces 64-bit processing technology to desktop computing, while also running 32-bit applications natively. The PowerPC G5 processor architecture is based on a completely new execution core that features massively parallel computation for an unprecedented 215 in-flight instructions, full symmetric multi-processing, two double precision floating point units and an optimized Velocity Engine. The PowerPC G5 chips are fabricated in IBM's $3 billion state-of-the-art semiconductor facility in East Fishkill, New York.

The new Power Mac G5 is based on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests when compared against 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based systems.

Complementing its computational power, the Power Mac G5 provides leading-edge expansion with dual 1.5 Gbps serial ATA interfaces; the industry's fastest PCI interface available on a desktop with a 133 MHz and two 100 MHz, 64-bit PCI-X slots; and AGP 8X Pro graphics capable of supporting the power and thermal demands of high-end professional graphics cards. The Power Mac G5 comes standard with either the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 or the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card. As a build-to-order option for unprecedented 3D design, visualization and gaming, the Power Mac G5 line also features the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a workstation-class graphics card featuring per pixel and vertex shaders, and provides an astonishing fill rate of 3 billion textured pixels/second.